Truevisions / U B C Incompetence

[ongcuunon]

Could Truevisions be better? Of course it could, but we can say that for just about any service. IMHO, the programming is good value for the subscription fee charged. If dissatisfied, we're all free to show our displeasure by taking our business elsewhere. There are a lot of small cable tv providers and a few iptv providers to go to, as well as the free-to-air channels. I personally wouldn't want to put my hard-earned leisure time in the hands of the alternatives to Truevisions.

[cathyy]

I decided I wanted a Truevisions PVR, so we went to the local True shop to get one. We ran into problems; the man running the shop had had a previous bad experience trying to get PVR service for somebody else who owned their set top box rather than renting it , and who paid for the satellite service annually instead of monthly. He did contrive a way around this. His solution was to sell us the PVR as if we were a new customer instead of an existing customer. The point we found objectionable in his plan was the part where he insisted we had to sign up for the Gold satellite package we wanted a second time. Truevisions does not give refunds. We would be paying double for service for the rest of the year, and our Truevisions year is only about half over. He honestly expected us to go along with this plan!

I sent in a request for PVR service to True directly using their website. We shall see what transpires. A Thai friend said the shop owner was merely trying to take us for more money. My experience tells me that while this is probably true, there will be problem getting PVR service because we aren’t presently getting a monthly bill, and their system is dependent on that billing. Never mind that the PVR service fee is waived for the first year. If it doesn’t fit in their little box, they don’t know how to deal with it.

[Lordfoul]

BBC entertainment edits their own content for Asia to meet the standards of far more conservative countries than Thailand. UBC (True) only handles the censoring of their own branded channels, this seems to be mainly limited to Blurring out Smoking and guns or knives being pointed at someone as per Thai decency standards.

From what I can Tell BBC, Star World and Star Movies are the most heavily edited channels. You want confusion? , Try watching the Star Movies edit of Mulholland drive, as if David Lynch isn't confusing enough.

The most surprising part of this thread is how few examples of incompetence people are able to come up with. Mostly petty guide errors.

"Torchwood" season 1 episode 5 - the ending didn't make sense to me, so I checked with my recently downloaded .avi files... it was censored.

So UBC thinks Torchwood is too violent? Jesus wept.

[JetsetBkk]

BBC entertainment edits their own content for Asia to meet the standards of far more conservative countries than Thailand. UBC (True) only handles the censoring of their own branded channels....

You could well be right and I will be trying to contact someone at the BBC to find out.

Here's something else I found out recently: a brilliant episode of Dr Who was about Madame De Pompadour. At one point in the episode, Dr Who shouts out "I've just snogged Madame De Pompadour!" But there was no kiss shown at all, no embrace, nothing!

This episode was followed immediately by a "Dr Who Confidential" program which showed the making of that episode AND showed a clip of a very long mouth-to-mouth kiss between the Dr and Madame De P.!

So that kiss got edited out - the kiss that would've explained a lot of the subsequent events, but instead the story line was f*cked!

[dthomasss]

Tech support is truly amazing...

This morning I had no reception. Just E48 no signal. I tried the usual, unplug, remove and replace the card etc. An hour later still the same.

Finally called tech support. Even after giving customer number and address, she still asked me question after question for identification purposes.

I explained the problem clearly, and she said, "Ok error 48 means your cable has come loose. Please check the back of your box and plug it in again."

This is after I explained the things I had already tried.

That was followed by "Please turn off all your electricity and try again." I didn't bother to pursue that line of reasoning and just said yes I tried that.

Finally she said she would have to get tech support to come out. She went off the line for 5 minutes and when she came back I was informed that next Wednesday (five days) was the earliest they could come out. I said that was not acceptable so she said she would try for an earlier day and would call me right back.

That was two hours ago. I just called again and was told, "Yes we have appointment for you next week on Wednesday. Not sure what time they will come so we have to call you back."

Amazing....

[Cal]

PGA Championship, one of the 4 majors. They will start the 3rd round today around 1700 hrs Bangkok time, while the 4th round will start around 2000 hrs. The whole thing to finish 0600 local time tomorrow.

True will of course not show any live action this evening. They will show re-runs from Friday tonight when there is exciting live coverage from the 3rd and 4th round.

Live sending on True starts at 0130 hrs. This to make sure that every golf-fan in Thailand get zero value of money.

True is really going out their way to give crap service.

Don't come saying that it is cheap either. It is double price of CATV in Europe, while for example mobile services in Thailand is less than half price.

[Bangyai]

The program-menu on tv. For some reason they decided to change it to make it better 12 months ago. It has been useless since.

Payment is a nightmare, but wife covers that

NBA Finals. Only showed a few of the games I believe. But cut out the game on saturday morning (Bk time). Fantastic.

Premier League coverage.

Other than that? It is a monopoly so they get all the sports rights very cheap I assume. Most is covered. From Ryder Cup, masters, Forumla 1, Premier league, etc.

Rain and no coverage. But we have to blame that on the other monopoly, satellites. Now who owns that and who used to own that?

If you have a computer at home and want to watch premiership football LIVE I suggest you download a TVU player from the internet FREE and you can watch the footy without having to pay 1500 for True/ubc. You also get a load of other channels that are not worse than some of the crap you get with UBC.

[PattayaDavid]

I generally find UBC to be quite acceptable, but like many have pointed out, it is pretty much the only game in town and that's the real rub, no competition. I do wish that UBC would carry the Fox News channel so I can cancel my Banglamung cable subscription (use only for Fox News broadcasts).

I was looking on all of the UBC sports channels yesterday, no olympic coverage, am I missing something here?

[Cal]

True is terrible when it comes to this weekend's coverage of PGA.

Olympics - Thai channels cover this.

FOX News - I hope you mean the Australian version and that it is better than the US version?

[JetsetBkk]

...I was looking on all of the UBC sports channels yesterday, no olympic coverage, am I missing something here?

Try the Thai channels - Ch3, Ch7 etc. Of course, you may come across a shouting and slapping match between a couple of Thais, but that's just a Thai soap opera - keep clicking!

[MartinBKK]

Just sat down to watch the advertised Community Shield football match between Manchester United and Portsmouth. Scheduled in the magazine to be on Star Sports - guess what its not on and with no explanation either.

What a joke.

Edited August 10, 2008 by MartinBKK

[PattayaDavid]

I was watching Fox News on Banglamung cable last night and during one of the commercial breaks, a Fox News staff member thanked True Move UBC Corp Ltd. viewers in Thailand for watching. Is Fox News shown via UBC in some parts of Thailand? Could it be that Fox News is shown over UBC's cable system, such as in Bangkok, but not over their satellite service?

Why would I want to watch an Australian version of a program that originates from the United States? It would be like watching CNN International of which I think is total worthless viewing.

[JetsetBkk]

Complaining works!

For the last 3 or 4 days, all "BBC Entertainment" program information has been wrong - not just the odd time or program wrong, but everything. It was as if they had loaded the wrong months information into the system. So last night I logged on to their web site and told them about it.

Now, today, it's been fixed.

[retiree]

To be fair to UBC, the one thing they do have a lot of is sport, and you will find plenty of live sporting events.

Sports? It's quite incredible that UBC built a system capable of pay-per-view, then forgot to arrange for content when the biggest sporting event in four years comes along! And please don't say that the free TV Olympics coverage makes up for it -- it's a tiny and haphazard sample of what's going on in Beijing.

As for the tall skinny people on movies ... try changing the settings on your TV - works for me.

Sure -- if you have a widescreen digital TV. Regular 4/3 televisions don't have such settings. It's UBC's DVD playback machine that's set incorrectly.

Retiree

[longball53098]

Sorry I never have problems with movies or anything else from UBC. It just works and my picture is always clear and the sound is always clear and the little menu programming things are nothing but small annoyances that go away.

Chill out have another beer and just enjoy life

[Rice_King]

I cannot comprehend TrueVision's (UBC) strange pricing / package arrangement.

A logical person would think that the top package offers everything available. As an example, assume UBC has 20 programs. The top package provides program numbers 1 thru 20. The next package offers programs 1-15. The third package 1-10. And the fourth package 1-5.

TrueVisions offer four top "packages" -- Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Knowledge. For whatever its worth, the Platinum package does provide the subscriber everything UBC has to offer.

The next highest package, the Gold, provides nearly all the same programs that the Platinum offers. Gold subscribers don't receive the Turner Classic Movie, MGM, True Sports, AXN, Star World, E!, Nat Geo Adventure, and various others that are offered with the Platinum. However, all of the previously mentioned channels, with the exception of True Sports and AXN, REAPPEAR if you subscribe to the third "Silver" package.

Just doesn't seem like a logical way to do "tiered" pricing to me.

[deckape]

Hi

I like UBC

Can you make a sentence with these words ?

fool - parted - a - money - with

UBC can, they do it every month but if you are happy, I guess they are too

JAF

Up to you

i like UBC a lot better than cable for sure ( the cable i have)

I too like Truevisions (UBC). Where I am the cable is very poor. I only wish I could get my daily Fox News updates from my favorites like Bill OReilly and the group. I have not seen Fox for over 2 months now and I went cold turkey and my withdrawals are rough.

My True signal is always "picture"perfect except in the heaviest of rain storms and I loose it for a few minutes.

No complaints with any broadcast quality whether its movies or sports. The Open that's on now is great

If you like OReilley and Fox news you deserve UBC

[gymshark]

I was moving from one apartment to another in the same building to get a bigger room, I had UBC and they wanted to charge me to move the system, I sked about the charge and they said it was for new cabling, I was moving closer to the dish so I asked them about a refund for the cabling they woud save, that went right over their heads. Anyway they didn't want to budge so I ditched their gear at reception and told them to pick it up or it would go in the bin, the choice with them was crap and overpriced anyway.

[deckape]

To be fair to UBC, the one thing they do have a lot of is sport, and you will find plenty of live sporting events.

Sports? It's quite incredible that UBC built a system capable of pay-per-view, then forgot to arrange for content when the biggest sporting event in four years comes along! And please don't say that the free TV Olympics coverage makes up for it -- it's a tiny and haphazard sample of what's going on in Beijing.

As for the tall skinny people on movies ... try changing the settings on your TV - works for me.

Sure -- if you have a widescreen digital TV. Regular 4/3 televisions don't have such settings. It's UBC's DVD playback machine that's set incorrectly.

Retiree

Agreed UBC sucks. You can change the aspect ratio by going into the menu in the UBC Box. EZ

[JetsetBkk]

At about 1 am UBC went off air for about 3 minutes - thought there was another coup Now that it's back, I've "lost" Movie Hits and XZYT, gained HBO Family and HBO Signature, and UBC Series is showing an apology, as is "insE".

They are - hopefully - fiddling with the channels again, else it's a screw up of some sort.

One thing I've noticed is that some channels are tuning in much quicker - flicking between BBC and CNN is almost instantaneous, so maybe they've done a software update to the decoders.

Oh, and all the "info" at the bottom of the screen is missing.

[JetsetBkk]

One thing I've noticed is that some channels are tuning in much quicker - flicking between BBC and CNN is almost instantaneous, so maybe they've done a software update to the decoders.

No such luck - they've turned the encryption back on so it's back to it's old 1 or 2 seconds delay.

[ongcuunon]

I cannot comprehend TrueVision's (UBC) strange pricing / package arrangement.

A logical person would think that the top package offers everything available. As an example, assume UBC has 20 programs. The top package provides program numbers 1 thru 20. The next package offers programs 1-15. The third package 1-10. And the fourth package 1-5.

TrueVisions offer four top "packages" -- Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Knowledge. For whatever its worth, the Platinum package does provide the subscriber everything UBC has to offer.

The next highest package, the Gold, provides nearly all the same programs that the Platinum offers. Gold subscribers don't receive the Turner Classic Movie, MGM, True Sports, AXN, Star World, E!, Nat Geo Adventure, and various others that are offered with the Platinum. However, all of the previously mentioned channels, with the exception of True Sports and AXN, REAPPEAR if you subscribe to the third "Silver" package.

Just doesn't seem like a logical way to do "tiered" pricing to me.

Since I used to be involved in some of this work in Europe, allow me to hazard a guess at an explanation.

Many of the content providers to pay tv impose tiering restrictions and obligations on the broadcasters as take-it or leave-it. So, just for example but please don't expect me to try to justify its logic, the provider may say that its content must be shown on the broadcaster's highest tier and on its most widely distributed tier ONLY. So, it's possible that while Gold is not the highest tier, neither is it the most widely distributed tier, that instead being the lower-priced Silver.

[ongcuunon]

Also the Thai commentators on the football - what's that all about?

Did you forget to change the language to ENG? But also this is Thailand and Thai TV and their market is predominately Thai speaking people so I think they have a right to broadcast in Thai if they choose.

I too am not sure what this is all about. Maybe it depends upon what box you're using (and whether it's a legit or a pirated box). Perhaps there have been exceptions of which I'm unaware, but for all of the EPL matches I've watched over the past week+ I'm able to switch between Thai and English commentary. For matches on Thai TV channels 3, 5 and 7, then since they're originally broadcast as a terrestrial signal you'll receive only one language, that being Thai for their predominately Thai audience.

[Cromarty]

I agree that UBC can be frustrating, it is however improved over recent years and has expanded it's lineup. I have / have had Astro and Multichoice (African). Multichoice is excellent for it's breadth of sport but it doesn't show many premiereship games. Film channels (2 main ones) are better but the rest of their lineup is poor. Astro is excellent, content still repeated but not as much, still cencsored, but not to the same degree. I had to go back to UBC when Astro changed their encryption and my legitimately subscribed card wouldn't read in my dreambox.

I have recently manged to get the full EPG for my Media Center PC and I have noticed some glitches, but I got these back in the UK.

People go on about the rain, but where I am all the different satellites (Malaysian, African, Thai) I receive go off when a monster rain cloud hits.

[JetsetBkk]

Anyone else have a problem with Star World's sound level?

It appears to be about 20% of the level it was - almost inaudible until I turn the volume to maximum.

This started yesterday.

[Lordfoul]

Yes, same here. If you change the language to Thai (still english audio) it is normal levels.

Anyone else have a problem with Star World's sound level?

It appears to be about 20% of the level it was - almost inaudible until I turn the volume to maximum.

This started yesterday.

[Rice_King]

Anyone else have a problem with Star World's sound level?

It appears to be about 20% of the level it was - almost inaudible until I turn the volume to maximum.

This started yesterday.

Same here JetsetBKK. I noticed the lack of volume last night and now, over 12 hours later, it is still very low. <deleted>?

[JetsetBkk]

Anyone else have a problem with Star World's sound level?

It appears to be about 20% of the level it was - almost inaudible until I turn the volume to maximum.

This started yesterday.

Same here JetsetBKK. I noticed the lack of volume last night and now, over 12 hours later, it is still very low. <deleted>?

Brilliant! Thanks.

(Why didn't I think of that )

[PompeyMatt]

I'm currently a UBC customer and have been for jut under a year. I have the same complaints as everyone else, particularly the magazine, and the build up to the footy (being in Thai). I am just about to change condos (same building). How much will they charge me to move the box ? (There is no cable-in in the new kennel)

I have also been offered a different service, which was described as "satalite" by the Admin in my building. It is 3,000 for the year and has 30 (approx) channels including supersports 1-7 (I think) and five movies channels, BBC etc. Sounds a lot better than 1,600 per month. Has anyone heard of this ? Is it any good ?

Cheers

[ongcuunon]

Anyone else have a problem with Star World's sound level?

It appears to be about 20% of the level it was - almost inaudible until I turn the volume to maximum.

This started yesterday.

Same here JetsetBKK. I noticed the lack of volume last night and now, over 12 hours later, it is still very low. <deleted>?

I have no idea if we have similar systems. I am in a serviced apartment building and we get the UBC channels selected by the building. After the recent re-channeling we began to have low volume problems on CNN and on one sports channel. When I told the building manager, he disappeared for no more than 10 minutes and when he returned the volume was fine. This suggests to me that he fixed the problem by tweaking something here in the building, because after 10 minutes he'd still be on hold if he had called UBC.